AKRON — Poised to take the floor for warm-ups in the packed small-town gym Thursday, senior guard Brady Baer and the Akron Rams watched the end of the varsity girls game. When the Rams, the two-time defending Class 2A girls state champions, fell to Caliche 59-55, Baer consolingly tapped hands with the girls as they passed.

This was a family affair too. Brady’s younger sister, Jordan, had just scored 26 points in the showdown of previously undefeated teams in the Lower Platte League.

Then Brady went out and scored 34 points, hitting five 3-pointers, as the Rams beat Caliche 85-63, and he moved within two points of CU’s Josh Scott on Colorado’s all-time high school career scoring list. Scott is fifth, with 2,275 points in his four seasons at Discovery Canyon and Lewis-Palmer. Baer seems likely to climb to at least second, behind only Buena Vista’s Brian Wood, by the end of the season.

“It’s a big thing, but it’s not a big thing to me,” Brady said after the game. “It’s more about the team and winning a state championship. That’s really the only thing on my mind. I want that so bad.”

As with any player putting up big numbers in a lower classification, they come with skepticism attached. Baer, averaging a state-leading 32.3 points, plays in a combination 2A-1A league at a school with an enrollment of about 120 over four grades, and in a town with a population of 1,072, located 23 miles southeast of Brush and Interstate 76. Small-town Americana is evident in the $4 Loaded Baked Potato Sale to raise money for technology equipment for the intermediate grades and the Cake Raffle for the senior class. The unmistakable impression is that the Baers, Brady and Jordan, who averages 18 points for the Rams, are celebrities in this town and school.

Brady smilingly confesses his listed 6-foot-2 height is accurate only when he’s wearing his shoes. He hasn’t gotten a single Division I scholarship offer and has only mild interest from Division II programs.

That seems surprising, given his stunningly quick release on his jumper, his sneaky quickness in drives to the hoop, and — increasingly this season — his ability to involve his teammates into the game.

A-OK for RMAC, you’d think

In many ways, Baer seems right out of the West Coast Conference (i.e., Gonzaga, Portland, Santa Clara) mold, and the low level of attention from Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference schools is downright puzzling. He also has played for the Denver-area Colorado Chaos in AAU ball in the summers and in tournament play across the country.

“That’s pretty frustrating, but that’s how it goes,” Baer said. “I haven’t decided if I want to go juco and work my way up to D-I or settle for D-II. ‘Settling’ is kind of a harsh word, and I don’t want to use that word. I don’t want to diminish the D-II game. It’s competitive. It’s college basketball. I’ll have to work to get better there too.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a young man who’s more dedicated, more of a team player and puts everybody else before himself,” Clarkson said. “We had to have him be the main guy the last three years. Even last year, he went away from that. He told me: ‘I want to get my number of shots down. I want to get everyone else in the game,’ and he did that. He’s really done that this year.

“He’s only taking 20, 21 shots a game and he’s making 12, 13 of them. And now you can’t just guard Brady Baer. … But as a sophomore and freshman, we had to rely on him. If he didn’t score big, we got blown out. A lot of people might have thought he was selfish, but he’s the most unselfish player I’ve coached.”

Brady’s and Jordan’s father, Alan, was raised in Wiggins, played at Northern Colorado and came to Akron in 1991 to take over an insurance agency. He helps out as an assistant coach to Rick Agan for the girls team.

“Jordan is more like me and Brady is more like his mother, Lori, personality-wise,” Alan said. “Brady’s a perfectionist, like his mother. Jordan is more low-key. Brady works on his game constantly and loves basketball. Jordan loves basketball, but she’s not like Brady.”

Jordan is shy. Brady is outgoing, confident and an exceptional talent at the small-school level. Especially in his younger years, that could add to the inevitable jealousy-based taunts from opposing crowds. But he generally has tuned out the crowd noise this season, and is strikingly polite in his dealings with everyone from opposing players to referees, and with the other adults he comes in contact with.

“He’s a great kid, great student and great student-athlete,” said Akron Schools superintendent Brian Christensen, an area native who previously was the high school’s longtime football coach and principal. “He works tirelessly at this sport, and we’re proud of him.”

“I’ve never gotten to state”

It helps that Brady’s father — as the girls team’s assistant coach — has the keys to the gym, but Brady also remains long after practice most nights.

“I’m lifting every other day and then staying after practice an hour a day, just working on my drills,” Brady said. “It’s huge to me to get some ball-handling work done to save myself some embarrassment in games.”

His quick release, he said, wasn’t natural.

“I work on it every night to get it off quick,” he said. “I see guys who take 10 years to get the shot off, and I just hate that. It makes me want to work on getting it off as quick as possible. That’s big, and it’s going to be especially at the next level.”

Jordan can seem almost in awe of her older brother.

“He pushes me to do my best, and I really appreciate that,” she said. “He makes me go to the gym and we do a couple of drills together, ball handling and a lot of shooting drills.”

But there’s one sore topic in any discussion between them. Jordan calls it a “tough subject,” in fact.

Jordan has played on two state championship teams. Brady hasn’t made it to the state tournament.

“That’s what everybody lives for,” he said. “If you don’t win state, nobody remembers you. Nobody remembers second place. I don’t want to end my career knowing we didn’t win state, and I’ve never gotten to state. I want to get there and win it. I want to prove we’re the best team in the state, and this is my last chance.”

His last chance before he heads to … well, wherever he ends up.

“I’ve seen him play AAU ball with 5A kids and he not only competes with them, he competes well,” Clarkson said. “I can’t believe there’s not a bigger school looking at him, because they would be very pleased with what they get with him. Maybe something will happen, I don’t know. But he’s not too worried about it. He’s putting the team first and wants that (state championship) gold ball.”

A graduate of Wheat Ridge High School and the University of Colorado, Terry Frei has been named a state's sportswriter of the year six times -- three times each in Oregon and Colorado. He mainly covers college football and hockey for The Post. He's the author of seven books, including the novel "Olympic Affair" about Colorado's Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion.

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